By Jerome Lagunzad
TUGUEGARAO CITY – One by one, Navy-Standard Insurance is taking its top rivals in the 2018 Ronda Pilipinas presented by LBC out of the equation.
The fancied Navymen, bannered by LBC Red Jersey holder Ronald Oranza and back-to-back champion Jan Paul Morales, executed their well-designed gameplan to a T in the lung-busting Stage 3 under the hot and humid conditions on Monday.
Oranza, 25, took it upon himself to put some pressure on Go for Gold Elite Team skipper George Oconer early on while Morales, 32, kept the pace up with the lead group as the Navymen started to take full control with nine more stages left.
“Naging successful ‘yung game plan namin ngayon,” beamed Oranza, who finished the brutal 225.5km trek from Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte up to the Cagayan Provincial Capitol here in five hours, 40 minutes and 43 seconds, good enough for 13th place.
However, the pride of Villasis, Pangasinan maintained his comfortable lead in the individual rankings with an accumulated time of 10 hours, 25 minutes and 39 seconds, exactly five minutes ahead of fellow Navyman Archie Cardaña.
Morales also redeemed himself from a so-so performance in Stage 2 as he finished Stage 3 at fifth overall in five hours, 39 minutes and 51 seconds, just six seconds behind lap winner, Team Army-Bicycology skipper Cris Joven.
Morales, seeking to complete an unprecedented ‘three-peat’ in the county’s biggest cycling race, also moved up from ninth to third overall in the overall rankings with an aggregate clocking of 10:31:01.
Joven, 31, also gained a fair share of the spotlight as he outsprinted Go for Gold Developmental Team’s Ronnilan Quita and Leonel Dimaano on a slightly uphill finish, throwing his arms in jubilation.
“Napatunayan ko na andito pa rin ako,” said the Iriga City, Albay native. “Lumalaban pa rin. Ganyan ang tunay na sundalo. Kailangan lang magtiis minsan. Pero sa awa ng Diyos, nag-succeed naman.”
Joven, who dedicated his stage victory to the entire Armed Forces of the Philippines and chief team supporter Eric Buhain, also made a big leap in the individual rankings, jumping from 23rd to seventh spot, still more than seven minutes off the pace.
Meanwhile, Oconer, 26, who trailed Oranza by just 48 seconds after the first two stages, found himself out of the Top 10 after failing to keep up the pacesetters.
“Laspag talaga ako, laspag talaga,” was all that the son of former two-time Olympian Norberto Oconer could say as he tried to figure out what went wrong while sitting on the grassfield along with his teammates.
